Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Samble, Richard

602592Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 50 — Samble, Richard1897Charlotte Fell Smith

SAMBLE, RICHARD (1644–1680), quaker, was baptised at Penhale in the parish of St. Enoder, Cornwall, on 24 July 1644. Joining the quakers in 1666, he soon became a minister, and travelled about England and Wales. At the end of six years he returned home to work at his trade of tailoring. He was fined 20l. for preaching at Plymouth on 5 April 1677, and in April of the following year 40l., both under the Conventicle Act. He was also heavily mulcted for absence from church. He died on 15 May 1680 at Clampet, near Moreton, Devonshire. He was buried at Kingsbridge on the 18th. By his wife, Jane Voyte of Creede, Cornwall, whom he married on 15 Nov. 1668, Samble had issue.

He wrote: 1. ‘A Testimony unto the Truth, to the Inhabitants of St. Enoder,’ 1676, 4to. 2. ‘Testimony to the Plainness and Simplicity of the Truth,’ 1679, 4to. 3. ‘A Testimony concerning Christopher Bacon’ (the preacher who had converted him), n.d., 4to. 4. ‘A Handful after the Harvest Man,’ London, 1684, 4to; published posthumously, and containing testimonies of Samble by Thomas Salthouse [q. v.], Jane Samble, wife of the author, and others.

[Boase and Courtney's Bibliotheca Cornub. p. 620; Besse's Sufferings, i. 122, 161; Smith's Catalogue, ii. 530; Life of Samble in Evans's Friends' Library, Philadelphia, vol. xii.; Registers, Devonshire House.]

C. F. S.